Moorea – last but not least

As a last island of French Polynesia, we decided to visit Moorea. I had always wanted to go there, but since we were not able to include it in our air pass, we saved it until the end and took the ferry from Papeete instead – which was easy enough. And a beautiful ride! First, we had great views of Tahiti, with Moorea in the distance, somewhere in the middle we had humpback whales breaching close to the boat, and later on we got the most spectacular views of Moorea – Tahiti faint in the distance. What an entrance to Moorea! The harbour is located between some high green mountains with beautiful blue waters around. Wow!

The next few days we explore the island by scooter and by foot, and of course soaked up the sun a bit more on the beach in front of our camping… some last beach time before we would go to South America and cooler temperatures would await us!

One day, we rented a scooter and drove around the whole island (which is not thaaat far). First, we headed to a viewpoint called Magic Mountain where unfortunately the guy told us it’s better to hike up than drive by scooter. A sweaty walk up an almost perfect road…where we easily could have gone by scooter. Oh well! The views were absolutely worth the hike though. Green mountains and turquoise waters, once again!

We then decided to drive along the South coast first, since the weather in the two bays in the North looked rather grey and rainy. Good choice! In the South, the sun was shining and we were able to enjoy some beautiful views. A really nice viewpoint is just past the Sofitel, where you can see the over-the-water-bungalows and the perfect clear water. Too bad we cannot afford to stay here! (Well, we probably could, but then our entire travel budget would be gone veeeery quickly…)

It was all very pretty, but the best are the two twin bays in the North: Opunohu Bay and Cook’s Bay. Here we took countless photo stops, relaxed a bit on the beach and enjoyed the typical Society islands landscape a bit more. Too bad this is the last island we are visiting!

Of course, we also drove up to the Belvedere, the most well-known viewpoint in Moorea. You don’t even have to hike at all to get this amazing view! Unfortunately, it was still a bit cloudy, but we nevertheless really enjoyed it.

Next day, we went hiking! We first hitched a ride to Opunohu Bay, then walked up again to the Belvedere – not along the road we had driven the day before, but on a nice trail in the forest. Up at the Belvedere, we took another trail which took us to a couple more viewpoints along the way and then all the way down to the other side of the island. It was pretty, but to be honest, the view stayed pretty much the same the whole time and a lot of the walk was just in the forest. In addition, it was raining for a big part of the hike, so at one point we were a bit done with it and ready to finish the hike. Also, hitchhiking proved difficult that day and it took us about 45min to get a ride. All in all, it was good to do some hiking again, but probably not absolutely necessary.

And…that was it for French Polynesia! Bus to ferry, ferry back to Tahiti and then a long wait during the night for our 3am flight to Easter Island. Why do flights have to leave at crazy times like these!? Seriously…

Rangiroa: Some disappointments, some surprises

Rangiroa is the biggest atoll of the Tuamotos, but still feels very remote. Here, we were camping in someone’s back garden, a place we found on AirBnB as the usual choice for campers, Rangiroa Plage, was fully booked. It wasn’t the best place, setting up our tent on hard and sometimes sharp pieces of coral. For 5 nights I worried about our inflatable sleeping mats and tent. But for now it seems like it survived… Rangiroa itself is also no beauty. We knew there would be no beaches, but to see only dead coral everywhere was sad. We cycled the whole length of the island and there really wasn’t much to see or take photos of. 

 

The best part for us was the spot at Tiputa Pass where you can watch dolphins in the afternoon, jumping in the waves. We went there many times with the mission to take the perfect picture.

 

Of course, we also had to go see some underwater action in the Tiputa Pass! However, once again after Tikehau, we were kind of disappointed. There were definitely more sharks to see than in Tikehau, but only reef sharks once again and not in masses either. On the first dive we had 2 dolphins coming close for a bit, but they didn’t stay long to play. We met a lot of people who had expected more of the famous Tiputa Pass than there was. I guess that’s always the danger when a destination gets so much hype – your high expectations might not be met. I’m not saying the diving wasn’t good – but it isn’t one of these places that we’re gonna remember for the rest of our lives. Even people who did 10+ dives there didn’t have much better experiences. Maybe they got lucky once or twice in that time with a hammerhead or a longer dolphin encounter. But that was it!

I think my favourite part about Rangiroa (next to watching the dolphins from the shore) was a yearly festival that we were lucky enough to see. The Farerei Haga was really cool! They had some competitions in the afternoon, like boat races or rock lifting which were fun to watch and quite impressive. And every night at 7pm there was a dance show given by a different dance group from the Tuamotus or Tahiti. And it was all for free! The dances were beautiful and they really put a lot of effort into them. Everything was well choreographed and they changed outfits after almost every dance. We went there three evenings during our time in Rangiroa and it was great every time!! Some groups were adults, some just kids but they were great! Once we were lucky to get front row seats for good pictures – so here are some:

 

The festival really made our stay in Rangiroa so much better, an island which otherwise didn’t fulfill our expectations at all…

…except for the Blue Lagoon tour we did one day! It was an all day boat tour, crossing through the whole lagoon to the other side of the atoll where the Blue Lagoon – kind of a mini lagoon inside the lagoon – is located. It was a 1 h ride across, but weather conditions were perfect and when we arrived we were straight away captivated by all the blues of the lagoon and the little picture-perfect islets with photogenic palm trees. What was more and super special for us: sharks everywhere!! Seriously, we have never seen that many blacktips in one place at once! And cute little baby ones, just the size of my underarm! And all of that in perfect clear water, white sands and a turquoise shimmering lagoon in the background. Awesomeness!

 

Our guide took us for a short walk, more through the water than on land, to Bird Island with some very nice views along the way. We were taught how to open a coconut and how to make a hat out of palm leaves. Then it was time to return to the main island where a delicious bbq lunch was waiting for us, yummy! We really enjoyed our time at this special place.

 

Too soon it was time to leave, but on the way back we made a stop for snorkelling which was amazing! There wasn’t much of a reef, but sharks, sharks, sharks!! Mainly blacktips once again, but also some huge lemon sharks! They were a bit more shy, so it was harder to get close to them, but when we managed we had some really impressive and close encounters! A perfect ending to a perfect day – and without this lagoon tour we probably wouldn’t have such fond memories of Rangiroa now. So if you go…do not miss out on this tour!

 

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Tiny Tikehau

From Bora Bora, we took a flight via Rangiroa to Tikehau – our first island of the Tuamotus archipelago. While the Society Islands, which we had visited so far, are mountainous and green, the Tuamotus are narrow strips of land, mostly consisting of coral rocks and palm trees. The islands are shaped in form of atolls, which means that they form a ring of land around the lagoon inside, with the open ocean on the other side. This ring is usually interrupted by a couple of passes – and this is where the main diving action takes place.

While Tikehau is not the main place for diving, we still booked 2 dives there to check out the high amount of fish said to be there… Well. It was 2 of our most boring and disappointing dives ever. There really wasn’t much of anything to see. A couple of fish groups here and there – but not a captivating amount for sure. The coral was all dead. And while we did see a reef shark or two, we had definitely expected more!

The only thing that made the day better was that we stopped by a manta cleaning station before the dives, and there were two big mantas putting on a show for us! Unfortunately we could only snorkel there, but it was awesome nevertheless!!

The rest of our time in quiet, low-key Tikehau was spent relaxing at the beaches, cycling around the island and enjoying 🙂 Life on a small island like this also has its complications though: it was at times difficult to find food with baguettes having to be pre-ordered 24h in advance, and you can only buy beer when you have an empty bottle to return (how does one start? We don’t know.)

We were camping right on the beach at Chez Justine, in a basic setup – and unfortunately with millions of mosquitos! The location was great though – right at the lagoon with blacktips circling around. The snorkelling wasn’t great otherwise, but the sharks made up for it! Where we found even more sharks though, was in front of the Royal Tikehau Hotel. We spotted them when we picked people up there for diving, and then went back twice ourselves. Once we cycled to the tip of the main island and then swam across the 2 small channels to the hotel pier and restaurant. Another time, we took the kayaks from Chez Justine – which was the better choice! Once in the water, you’re surrounded by blacktips! We counted up to 15 at times, and some were quite curious. There was also lots of smaller reef fish waiting for scraps from the restaurant – so all in all a really cool spot to visit!!

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After a couple of days, it was time for yet another scenic flight onwards to Rangiroa.